Only a few hours
after Brian David Mitchell snuck in through window of the ritzy
Federal Heights home on June 5, 2002 and abducted Elizabeth Smart,
theories about the kidnapping began flying around Salt Lake.

And not only in
Utah. Elizabeth Smart was a national obsession. With the arrival of
the tabloids on the scene the rumors began to fly, the wilder the better.

Everyone had an
opinion. She was killed by a family member and the kidnapping was a
cover up. She was a runaway. A crazed psychopath had abducted her for
unspeakable purposes. The lurid nature of the crime excited the darkest
revulsion and titillation in the nation's collective unconscious. The
one consistent among all the theories (except for the small but dedicated
runaway contingent) was that she was dead. That was a dead-bang certainty.

Where the Elizabeth
Smart rumor mill really produced chaff was the internet. The worldwide
web has replaced the photocopied pamphlet as the prime platform for
the whacked-out kook. No matter how crazed a viewpoint, the web welcomes
it. Soon the heated postings on Usernet groups follow, continuing the
love affair.

Psychics predicted,
amateur criminologists sleuthed, all their musing engraved in HTML,
ready to be resurrected by anyone with a good search engine. That is
why, when Elizabeth Smart was found alive March 12, 2003, there were
a lot of words coming back to haunt folks.

Ask
Sollog

The
day the story broke about the Salt Lake City kidnapping of Elizabeth
Smart , I was told by Sollog the world famous mystic that "the
girl was already dead!" He stated that it was, "another SATANIC
SACRIFICE on THE LINE OF SOLLOG !"

This sinister quote
was posted on the alt.prophesies.nostrodamus news group June
16, 2002 by an acolyte of the web-based psychic Sollog (a.k.a.
John Ennis).

Sollog hosts several
web sites dedicated to his rambling on the state of modern religion
and our downhill slide towards a nuclear conflagration and such like.
He also devotes considerable megabytes to apocalyptic prophesies, his
most spectacular claim being that he forecasted the terrorist destruction
of the World Trade Center towers.

That most modern
religious leaders use their worship of Jesus as a cover for their true
master, Satan, is one of his wackier theories. He is loaded with them.

The day following
the Elizabeth Smart kidnapping, a follower asked whether the kidnapping
was related to the Jon Benet Ramsey murder on his Ask Sollog
web site. The mystic had lot of answers. Needless to say, his tidbits
about the Smart case vanished from his site after the teenager was discovered.
But, due to the unforgiving nature of the internet, his remarkable visions
concerning the fate of Elizabeth Smart remain available.

"Elizabeth Smart was SACRIFICED in a satanic ritual,
as was Jon Benet Ramsey. Both the Ramsey's and Smart's are members of
a satanic cult that commands the sacrifice of a child in their family."

Pretty damned spooky,
also completely off the mark. Like many arm-chair sleuths, he lay the
blame at the innocent feet of Ed Smart and clan. He upped the
ante on the theorists who figured it was due to homosexual leaning of
Ed and his brothers (propagated in the notorious National Enquirer
article). Her parents performed the killing of their teenage daughter
at the behest of Lucifer.

Sollog backed his
bold claims with a mind-numbing display of cabalistic legerdemain that
made connections between Ramsey and Smart based on numerical similarities
in their names. He also had some interesting things to say about Mormonism
in general.

"The Smart family traces their roots back to one
of the twelve apostles of Joseph Smith the founder of the LDS or Mormon
church....There is a vast network of satanic cults in the USA that practice
child sacrifices. The Ramsey's and Smart's are secret members of these
cults! Likewise, in the LDS there is a cult of believers that believe
Jesus was Lucifer, just like they do in Rome. It is these hidden groups
within these church movements that sacrifice their young to Lucifer!"

Sollog goes on
to connect the Smart abduction to everything bad that has happened in
the U.S.A. in the past fifty years, including the Oklahoma bombing,
the Columbine shootings, and the murder of Johnnie Versace.
Elizabeth Smart was no mere victim of a lone nut or simple family homicide.
She was one in a long line of sacrafices made to a Satanic order that
has been pulling the strings of world events in a sinister plot to move
us towards nuclear holocaust.

Needless to say
he backed off the Smart case after she was found. He hasn't really written
much about her or tried to explain where his mystic powers went wrong.
His followers have posted lame defenses on the Usernet, claiming either
his Smart revelations were never intended to be true prophesy or, better
yet, that the term "satanic sacrifice" was really symbolic
for kidnapped by a polygamist nut. Neither Sollog or his followers have
explained the symbolic representation of " both the Ramsey's and
Smart's are members of a satanic cult that commands the sacrifice of
a child in their family." Nor have they spoken up up about the
place Brian David Mitchell and Wanda Barzee hold in the vast Satanic
org.

Sollog has shifted
the Elizabeth Smart prophesy department to his wife, Nikkee,
who shares space on the Ask Sollog web space. On June 7, 2002
(or so they claim), she wrote a more optimistic prophesy for the missing
teenage girl.

"Be Aware of the number 113, for it will always
be known for its TRAGEDY. In the silence of night, there has has been
HUMAN SACRIFICE. This ANGEL of EL has been taken. But make no mistake,
She is not FORSAKEN. LOOK to TOOELE people of SALT LAKE, BE AWARE, it
might not be what you think....This is my spiritual reading for those
who SEEK ELIZABETH SMART
Nikkee
Goddess of Victory"

Nikkee's followers
have made much of the 113 reference due to the March 12 recovery of
Smart. They claim, that through cabalistic mumbo-jumbo the 113 (March
11, get it?), she is right on the money and not a day early. The lines
about Smart not being forsaken and "it might not be what you think,"
have been touted by devotees that the Sollog prophesy machine is still
calling them straight. Once again, satanic sacrifice substitutes for
abduction by a kook.

Remote
Viewers Get Bad Reception

"The data that we have collected so far is as
follows: Elizabeth is dead & hidden inside of a man-made structure.
Part of this structure has sloped sides and also has a long shaft connected
to it. Her body lies near or underneath a pile of rocks close to a grate
which lies in an enclosed, narrow space."

Such was the claim
made on the Psi-Tech web site August 22nd, 2002. What the hell
is Psi-Tech?. It is a Seattle-based company that deals in matters
psychic.

Psi-Tech
was founded by Col. Ed Dames, a flamboyant character who claims,
among other things, to have once been in charge of the U.S. Army's psi
warfare program. The company offers paranormal consulting that is a
bit more upscale than the average psychic hotline. It had been brought
into the case at the behest of Dave Smart, one of Elizabeth's
uncles.

It is one of those
groups that researches occult matters but cloaks the subject in scientific
terms. A vision becomes a "technical remote viewing."
A psychic transforms into a "remote viewer." This
jargon lends Psi-Tech slightly more credibility in a field
that is generally ridiculed. It is the kind of company a police force
might employ as a last ditch effort on a desperate case, just like in
the movies. Dames left the company he founded on less than amiable terms
prior to the Smart case.

"A few hours after we learned of the abduction
event last June, Joni and myself and a few of our top people tasked
our TRV skills to see if Elizabeth was still alive. Unfortunately she
wasn't. Using Technical Remote Viewing we can tell with great accuracy,
if a person is deceased in a matter of minutes. In Elizabeth's case,
we knew she had already been killed by her abductor."

This little tidbit
was part of a news release by Psi-Tech CEO Dane Spotts,
posted on the company web site at the end of August. Employing a team
of 14 remote viewers, Spotts and associates determined Elizabeth's body
was hidden in a concrete structure by the "This Is The Place
Monument," near the mouth of Emigration Canyon. Their vision
also revealed that Smart's resting place was a tomb the state had built
to house 75 native American bodies discovered at an archeological site.

Even more astounding,
Psi-Tech came up with a possible kidnapper. It turned over
the name of a suspect to police. Luckily for all involved, neither the
police or Psi-Tech released the identity of the psychically-busted
suspect.

Spotts and company
president, Joni Dourif traveled to the alleged spot where Elizabeth
was hidden. They dragged along the police and a state archeologist and
cajoled them into searching the concrete building. Of course, no sign
of Elizabeth's decomposing corpse was found as she was alive and the
prisoner of Mitchell.

The Psi-Tech
leaders did not take it very well that a corpse had failed to turn up.
Spotts lashed out at the archeologist for not allowing them access to
the site and even implied the state employee might have some sinister
motive for excluding the remote viewers from the search.

When Elizabeth
was discovered still living and nowhere near the supposed entombment
of her body, Psi-Tech did some back pedaling.

The news on Wednesday broke of the retrieval of Elizabeth
Smart. Since that day, PSI TECH has been inundated with hate mail because
we announced early in our investigation that she was deceased. Personally,
I must tell you, I am devastated.

This rather generous
helping of crow was eaten by Psi-Tech with a news release by
Dourif on the company web site two days after Elizabeth was found. Gone
were the detailed descriptions of their psychic investigation and in
its place was a lengthy apologia, hastily composed, explaining what
went wrong.

Psi-Tech
would not admit it completely screwed the pooch. The news release spun
the facts in a way that, much like Sollog, alleged its remote viewers
got it sort of right.

The remote viewers
were emotionally frazzled from another grueling child disappearance
when they focused their psychic powers on the Smart case, Dourif explained.
This exhaustion led to a bad interpretation of the viewing.

"Our first dire mistake was our rush to conclusion
that Elizabeth was deceased in our initial public spot report. We "assumed"
that because we found her unmoving and lying still in one place."

Psi-Tech
also explained away the naming of a suspect as another reasonable assumption.
The remote viewers saw him "constraining and abusing a woman"
and naturally concluded he was the Smart culprit.

"As it turns out, because of the P.I. company's
ground investigation, we discovered that he indeed had a history of
recently abusing his wife and girlfriend. They also found human blood
and a gun hidden in his car....Although we got a "bad guy"
who abused women and carried illegal firearms off the streets, we have
tarnished the public view of this technology by being wrong about Elizabeth's
mortality."

There are three
possible conclusions about Psi-Tech. It is genuine, or a well-meaning
company pursuing a fake science, or a total scam. Only Psi-Tech knows
for sure.

The skeptic might
conjecture that company execs played the odds. Past examples show that
it is a pretty sure bet a teenage girl is dead after being abducted
by a nut and missing for several days. The killer would quickly consummate
the gruesome act given the passion usually involved in such a crime.
It is then only a matter of researching the area near the Smart home
to find a likely dumping place for the body. On this one Psi-Tech
crapped out.

Ed
Smart Dood It

About a week or so ago, Ed and Lois were on the John
Walsh daytime talk show. Ed had a very guilty look on his face. Ed looked
the way Jack Tripper looked on "Three's Company" when Jack
was hiding something.
Regards,
Alex K.

A major portion
of the conjecture was aimed at the Smart family. Ed Smart,
Elizabeth's father, in particular unjustly took the brunt of our collective
suspicion.

The two main schools
in this line of thought were, the majority view that Elizabeth was the
victim of domestic violence, and the much smaller adherents of theory
that the family was hiding the teen to conceal some disgrace like pregnancy.
As to the latter theory, every one knows the smartest way to cover-up
an unwanted pregnancy is to fake a major felony that is sure to draw
the interest of law enforcement across the nation.

The domestic homicide
theory was meatier. Most murders are committed by someone the victim
knows. When a child or young teenager is thrown into the mix there is
a good chance a family member is involved.

Most people in
Utah were uncomfortable suggesting Ed Smart was guilty. Such a horrible
accusation could only add to the suffering of the family. Though many
refused to say such an unspeakable thing aloud, a hell of a lot of people
thought Ed had killed his daughter.

Those computer
geeks who feel it necessary to post their every thought on the Usernet
weren't so squeamish. To many, Ed's pleas for his little girl in numerous
press conference didn't ring true. They just didn't like the guy. News
groups such as alt.truecrime.com are filled with posting of
folks who claimed Smart's very real grief seemed phony.

Enter the National
Enquirer. While reputable news agencies were reluctant to explore
the seamier aspects of the case, the tabloid reporters that flocked
to Utah in the wake of the Smart kidnapping were more than willing to
dish up the dirt.

Two Salt Lake
Tribune reporters, Kevin Cantera and Michael Vigh,
sold information to the locally embedded Enquirer correspondent to the
tune of $10,000 each. The result was the notorious May 5, 2002 Enquirer
cover story "Utah Cops, Secret Diary Exposes Family Sex Ring."
The article detailed alleged acts of homosexuality and sadomasochism
practiced by Ed Smart and his brothers. Though the article avoided explicitly
naming Ed or his brothers as killers, the implication was obvious. The
alleged sexual preference of dad and his siblings was somehow connected
to Elizabeth's disappearance.

I do not particularly trust Ed Smart . Ed Smart and
Tom Smart may be closet gays, and Elizabeth may have found out about
them. Ed may have a motive to get rid of Liz.
Posted 9-25-2002 alt.true-crime

Internet sleuths
soon began expanding on the gay killer theory. A persistent rumor showing
up was that the FBI had discovered gay porn on Ed's computer. These
amateur Sherlock Holmes deduced that somehow Elizabeth had discovered
her dad's dirty little secret and had to be silenced. A pretty extreme
reaction to being outed.

The accusations
had no basis in verifiable fact. Ed successfully sued the Enquirer
over the story. Correspondent Alan Butterfield, as part of
the settlement between the tabloid and Smart, ratted out Vigh and Cantera.

The revelation
that two of their own had collaborated with the despised tabloid caused
a major crisis at the local daily. The Tribune's credibility
had taken a good shot to the nose. Both reporters were fired and Tribune
editor, James Shelledy, resigned in disgrace after publicly
supporting the two before he had all the facts.

Now that it has
been proven that gay leanings had absolutely nothing to do with Elizabeth's
disappearance, most of the heat has been taken off of the Smarts by
internet theorists. Except for the occasional jab at Lois Smart for
bringing a kook like Mitchell to her home, most web denizens realize
their musings about the family's role in Elizabeth's abduction was wrong-headed
and truly hurtful to a family in genuine pain.

Poor,
Poor Richard

One of the most
tragic figures in the Smart case is Richard Ricci. He was the
main suspect in the Smart abduction for many months. Although the police
never officially named the handyman as the kidnapper, Ricci was interrogated
and polygraphed by police, and had his reputation sullied by the media.

The ex-con seemed
like the perfect suspect. His alibi for the night Elizabeth was kidnapped
was shaky, he had a criminal record and recently left his employment
with Ed Smart on less than glowing terms.

The problem:
he was innocent. A statement to the police by his car mechanic
really put Ricci in the hot seat.

According to the
mechanic, Ricci had taken his jeep, which was being worked on, from
the garage about the time of the abduction. It has an extra thousand
miles logged on the tachometer when the mud-covered Jeep was returned
three days later . Even more suspicious, the mechanic said he saw Ricci
pull two bags and post-hole digger from the vehicle.

On June 14th, police
arrested Ricci for a parole violation. Everybody knew what it was really
about. The cops had their man and were just putting him the slammer
until they could get more concrete evidence. He was an ex-con, for pete's
sake. He must be the one.

Ricci died of a
brain hemorrhage on August 30 while in jail. One policeman even said
the secret of Elizabeth’s whereabouts vanished with the handyman.
The police had wasted three valuable months investigating Ricci. Now
that he was dead it looked like the search was over. Police officials
have denied they dead-filed the case after Ricci’s death, but
it obviously was a blow to verifying what they thought were the circumstances
of the crime.

Ricci is mostly
forgotten, a causality in the search for Elizabeth Smart. Angela
Ricci, Richard’s wife, filed suit for libel, false prosecution,
and wrongful death on August 30, 2003 against, among others, Salt Lake
police chief Rick Dinse. It hardly raised a ripple in a media that was
once so eager to parade his face for all to see.

He was no angel.
Ricci had been convicted of armed robbery in 1983 and had spent many
years in and out of jail. However, he certainly deserved better than
he got.

Run,
Run, Run, My Runaway

Elizabeth was "not happy" to see her father
when he came to the police station? Seems ODD to me; they say she was
sitting in a corner with her arms crossed in front of her,and she didn't
even speak to him. She was ANGRY?

This was posted
on alt.truecrime just five days after Smart was found. It exemplifies
the viewpoint of the most dedicated group of Smart theorists, the runaway
contingent.

The basis for this
theory is that Elizabeth was never abducted at all. She was fleeing
an unpleasant home life like so many other teenagers. Like the family
homicide devotees, the runaway theory was based on a dislike of Ed Smart.
He must be a tyrant who drove his daughter away.

While Elizabeth
was missing, this was the most optimistic view. At least she was alive.
However, after Elizabeth was found, this group tenaciously stuck to
their guns. The 30 minutes Elizabeth denied her identity, claiming to
be Augustine Marshall, only fueled their conviction.

Even when she was in police custody she still refused
to admit who she was. She was having the time of her life rebelling
against her strict parents. That's all this was. A runaway protesting
against her strict upbringing. You don't think anyone willingly plays
the harp, do you?
“Cherub”

These adherents
point out that Elizabeth had plenty of opportunity to escape in the
nine months she was missing. She went to parties and was often seen
in public. They scoff at claims of the Stockholm syndrome or that Elizabeth
was brainwashed or simply too afraid to flee her captors.

The issue they
fail to address is why a teenage girl bolting from a strict home would
choose to hang with a self-proclaimed prophet who forced her to wear
a burka.

Other
Assorted Theories

Three other theories
are worth pointing out. All three came in the form of one-time postings
on the Usernet

Wiccan witch Raven
Blackbone predicted that Elizabeth’s body would be found floating
in some reeds in a “Lake near her home.” Wrong.

Nancy Luft, who
claims to receive ESP messages from “The Special Sputnik Forces”
of the Russian military, said she was sent a message that a “man
in a golf hat" had abducted Elizabeth. Luft advocates the poor
killing the rich. She called the kidnapper “my beloved”
and hoped he tortured the girl before he killed her. Just plain
nuts.

Last but not least,
an anonymous wag suggested that Ed Smart had pressured President George
Bush to start the Iraqi war so the media would leave his daughter alone.
What a waste of tax dollars.

The
One Who Got It Right

Shortly after the
Smart kidnapping Flora Jessop, 34, emailed the media. She suggested
searchers look into a possible polygamist angle in the Smart abduction.

Jessop was someone
who knew polygamists. She had fled the Fundamentalist community of Colorado
City when she was sixteen. One of 28 children, the church leaders tried
to force her into a polygamist marriage with a man many years older.
She was having none of it.

An active opponent
of polygamy, Jessop founded Help the Child Brides, an organization
whose mission is to aid young women escaping multiple marriage.

Jessop’s
warning was ignored. The media and police were inundated with clues
to sift through and probably felt they didn’t have the time to
look into one more crackpot theory.

The arrest of
Mitchell and Barzee proved Jessop’s crackpot theory had hit the
mark.